


Stranger in My Arms

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Dysfunctional Relationships, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-27
Updated: 2008-05-27
Packaged: 2017-12-26 05:55:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/962401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver learns... but not all of it</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stranger in My Arms

Ollie woke to the feel of his wife shifting almost frantically from side to side, her head tossing from time to time in defiance of her dreams. No stranger to nightmares from either of their lives, Oliver started to reach out once he'd cleared the sleep from his eyes, to try and bring her up out of it.

"Slade! No...Slade..."

The name, wrung from her lips with such desperation nearly chilled Ollie's blood. As many problems as they'd had with the son of a bitch, he really had not wanted to hear Dinah speak that name so knowingly. Still, her agony and inability to escape whatever haunted her drove him close to her, and his solid arms around her did the trick, calming the passionate woman.

* * *

Since the night her tortured dream had awakened Ollie, the man had been unable to stop thinking about why Dinah had cried out that way for Slade Wilson. He kept seeing the battle with Dr. Light under the Terminator's protection, replaying it in his mind. Wally West had been the Flash on the scene, a Titan who should have been familiar with the villain. Kyle Rayner had once brought Slade Wilson into custody, so he had the right to be familiar with the man.

It had been Dinah who called him by name. First name. As if she expected him to listen.

And he had not, had taken her out of battle in the one way that left her humiliated and played against her darkest fears by binding her and making her helpless.

The more he turned it over in his mind, the more he had to believe that his wife had, at some point in her past, gotten to know the mercenary.

* * *

"I know we avoid talking about our time apart, Pretty Bird," Ollie began, and noted the way she made an effort to not tense. If he wasn't so used to seeing Bruce play unsurprised, he might not have caught it.

"With reason, Ollie...I don't want to bring up things that make me angry."

"Your own life makes you angry?" Ollie asked in a deceptively mild tone. Dinah gave him a shrewd look, the fire he expected lacking in her eyes. In its absence there was...grief?

"Not angry, Oliver." She turned away. "But it's best left alone."

"Why don't you talk it out? Tell me what makes your blue eyes sad?"

Dinah turned back to him with a wan expression. "Oliver, I love you, and I'm asking you to let it be enough."

Ollie let the topic fall, even as he wished with all his heart that she had denied having any affair that could wreck her like that.

He was beginning to have more reason than ever to wish Deathstroke the Terminator into a permanent grave, and hated that jealousy was now among them.

* * *

Now he knew what she'd felt, when she had left him in Star City. When he had refused to tell her just what had happened, already knowing most of it. 

He had the pieces of the puzzle, could fit them together, but she held back the key details that might have made it make sense. He had very few options for ferreting out the information, either, because when his Pretty Bird wanted something hidden, she did it well. It was how she had kept their colleagues from knowing of the brutal attack she had suffered, had kept Roy from hearing of many injuries over the years.

Only if he could get to Oracle, convince her he was doing this for Dinah's own good, would he know just what it was about her relationship with Slade Wilson that she wanted concealed forever.


End file.
